After a great start, with three decisive results in round 1, today only one game was decisive. But what a game! The strong Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won his encounter with Anish Giri of the Netherlands, swapping places with him in the standings. Maxime now sports a monstrous rating in the live list: 2792.5! Giri lost a game after an impressive streak without a single defeat since November 2015. The game was really exciting; a Sicilian Najdorf that MVL mastered in an almost old-fashioned way, with tactics and brilliant play all over the board.

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Carlsen drew Topalov comfortably with black, and is now 37 games straight without a loss.

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Grandelius and Aronian split the point after and interesting Berlin defense.
Kramnik tried to complicate his game against Li Chao, but the strong Chinese GM was a able to hold the draw.

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Now the trio in the lead is Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Tomorrow Round 3 at 10AM EDT - 16 CEST. Live commentary in ICC with IM Christof Sielecki and GM Lars Bo Hansen.